City Council’s mild restraint on the mayor’s spending plans seems especially fitting in light of the chastising by the state’s chief financial officer that preceded the council’s action.
Blaise Ingoglia said wasteful spending by the local government amounted to $200 million. That’s one-tenth of the general fund.
Ingoglia did not identify the wasteful spending. And Jacksonville is not the only local government to be criticized by state officials.
“We have heard from some of the taxpayers on the ground to check certain places, Jacksonville was one of those places where a lot of the taxpayers said we want tax relief, go and review them,” Ingoglia allegedly told local media..
He claimed that Hillsborough County had overspent by nearly $279 million. Last week, he alleged that Orange County had overspent by more than $190 million, and Alachua County had frittered away $84 million.
Not to point fingers, but Democrat politicians dominate those areas.
Mayor Donna Deegan, Democrat, and local Democrats huffed and puffed over the fact that the council decided Tuesday to take $13.5 million less from taxpayers than she wanted.
But the $4 billion general government budget handed to her is more than enough to meet real needs.
Deegan had neither political experience nor business experience when she took office so it is understandable that she does not realize there is a simple remedy for excessive or wasteful spending. It is called setting priorities. Once you do that, you start cutting at the bottom.
Police and fire protection, for example, would be a high priority.
A lesser priority might be spending millions to build a wide sidewalk through some of the least attractive and most crime ridden areas of town, while claiming you are “linking” places already linked by streets and sidewalks.
If something like that were needed or wanted, the private sector would do it.
Ingoglia is providing a valuable public service by responding to taxpayers and the City Council did its part by limiting the property tax increase that might have fueled even more waste.
After years of expansion, state and federal government leaders are listening to the people and limiting growth. Local politicians should do no less.
Read CFO Blaise Ingoglia’s Press Release about Jacksonville below.
